Modern passenger vehicles commonly include advanced safety systems including active restraints and a variety of airbags and other passive restraint systems. One of the main obstacles for manufacturers and suppliers related to safety standards is ensuring competitive price while including advanced safety systems. Another issue particularly pertinent to airbag systems is implementing provisions to deactivate or adjust airbag systems depending on various conditions, including the relative seat position with respect to the instrument panel.
In response to increasingly complex safety specifications, inflatable safety restraint technology has led to the development of what has been termed “adaptive” or “smart” inflator devices and corresponding inflatable restraint systems. Some adaptive systems incorporate multistage airbags to adjust deployment depending on the relative seat position with respect to the instrument panel. In these systems the position of each seat is monitored so that a vehicle control unit can adjust the stage of each airbag. The disclosed invention relates to a system to monitor the position of vehicle seats and other related applications.